


Close Call

by athletiger



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Drowning, Eggsy as Gareth, Harry as Arthur, Hypothermia, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Trapped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-07
Updated: 2015-07-07
Packaged: 2018-04-08 05:35:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4292694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/athletiger/pseuds/athletiger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fill for prompt in kingsman-dressing room 3: "A mission goes a bit tits up and Eggsy gets captured by generic villain of the week. However, instead of the whole torture-to-reveal-secrets scene, said villain simply locks Eggsy in a room (or container/chamber/tube/etc) that rapidly begins to fill with water. Oh, he's well aware that the young spy has an ear piece in and that the others can hear everything that's going on. But that's exactly what he wants: for them to listen helplessly as their comrade drowns." Full prompt is <a href="http://dressing-room3.livejournal.com/405.html?thread=177301#t177301">here</a>.</p>
<p>Eggsy gets captured by the worst possible enemy of Kingsman, and it is up to Harry, Merlin, and Roxy to save him from certain death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Close Call

**Author's Note:**

> So, I was looking through Dressing Room 3 from the beginning, and I was really tempted by this prompt. Thus, here we go...

Eggsy's feed went offline soon after he started his mission. While this in itself wasn’t worrying, he failed to check in, causing a great uproar in the tech department as everyone - minus the handlers who were directing other missions - pitched in to turn on Gareth's feed.

Merlin, of course, tried to override the mysterious cut-off, but it was all for naught. Arthur came into his room not two minutes after Gareth failed to tune in, and he stayed, pacing back and forth.

"Stop that, Arthur, you're wearing a hole into my floor." Merlin gritted his teeth when Arthur won't stop pacing. Harry paused, standing still and watching Merlin try to access the tracker, but it wasn't too long before Harry resumed his anxious pacing.

Merlin was fed up after ten minutes. "For fuck's sake, get out," Merlin growled.

"But..."

" _Get out_. You're distracting me. I'll let you know when we find Gareth."

Merlin heard the rustle as Harry combed his hair in frustration, and for a moment, Merlin was glad that he didn't have any himself, for he would have gripped it in worry and stress. He didn't turn around when Harry finally took Merlin's advice and left the room.

Four stressful hours later, the feed came back online.

"Gareth?" Merlin called hesitatingly.

What came next was a shock. "Nope." The voice popped the "p" sound. "Hello Merlin. It's been a long time."

Merlin growled, finally able to hack into the camera feed. "Mordred." As he pulled up the camera's feed, his eyes widened, and he tapped a few buttons. "Harry," he said urgently into his mic. "Get in here. Now."

There, filling the screen, was Eggsy, stripped of everything but his boxers, trapped in an extremely thin cylinder. His arm was bleeding - the one where the emergency tracker was located. His hands were pressed against the walls of the cylinder, and Merlin watched as Eggsy looked around his entrapment.

"Gareth!" Merlin shouted, just as Harry entered the room.

The voice of Mordred chuckled. "He can't hear you. As a matter of fact, he can't see you either. It's a two-way mirror." Merlin and Harry watched in horror as Eggsy frantically patted the glass in an attempt to get out. Panicked breathing resounded throughout the room, and it took Merlin a long moment to realize it came from neither Harry nor himself, but rather through the feed.

"Mordred!" Harry shouted, losing his composure for a minute.

"Why, hello there, Galahad. It's been a long while."

"Not long enough, I fear," Harry replied, struggling to calm himself. "Also, it's Arthur now."

Feigned surprised laced through the next words. "Oh, is it now? I would have never expected it."

Harry growled in his throat."Why did you kidnap one of our agents?"

Glasses moved off of Eggsy and flipped over to a handsome face with an evil glint in his eyes. Mordred's. "I warned you that next time you interfere with my work, I am going to take your agents and kill them. Slowly."

Merlin watched as Mordred put the glasses on again, viewing Eggsy's climbing attempt to escape. However, it proved impossible, for the top was sealed as well.

Harry expelled his breath. "Give us back Gareth, and we'll stay out of your hair."

"Oh! This puppy is yours, isn't it? I should have expected that." The glasses leaned further away from the view, and Merlin assumed that Mordred was leaning back. "But, no thanks. I'd rather wish to see the Kingsman suffer."

"You betrayed the Kingsman for your own monetary gain," Harry hissed.

Mordred clucked disapprovingly. "I wouldn't say that - I have your puppy. For that statement, I shall have to punish him."

By this time, Eggsy had come down from his climb and was now trying to break his prison using his elbow. A beep came through the audio feed, and Merlin and Harry watched as Eggsy yelped, leaping up. Water had filled the bottom of the tank at an alarming rate, and Eggsy's attempt to stay out of the water was impossible, for the water coated the tank walls, making it slippery and impossible to grip onto.

"Where is he?" Harry asked Merlin desperately.

"I don't know yet," Merlin replied, tapping rapidly on his keyboard. "Mordred killed the tracker."

"You and I should play a game," Mordred said over the harsh breathing that filled the air. Merlin and Harry  watched as Eggsy continued to make futile attempts to escape. Thankfully, the water stopped climbing...for now. Only, it was already at Eggsy's knee. "I know that you are good with technology stuff. But how familiar are you with pop culture?"

"Get Roxy," Merlin told Harry, bringing up a new black textbox. Harry hesitated, obviously wanting to stay, but if Mordred was going to test the Kingsman on something as menial as pop culture, the best chance was someone who is still familiar with it. Thus, Roxy.

"Go on," Merlin said warily. While he talked, he noticed a dark shadow at the corner of the camera feed...wait. Merlin zoomed in. It was a corner of a logo. Well, it was a start. Merlin clipped it and entered it into the Kingsman search database.

"Simple. For every question you answer correctly, the water level stays the same. For every question you get wrong, the level rises continuously until you answer the next question correctly."

"And if I don't play?"

“He drowns."

Merlin sighed through his nose. "Fine."

"Okay!" Mordred said cheerfully. "First question, what is the capital of New York?"

"Albany," Merlin said immediately.

"Easy, ain't it? Well, that was just the warm up. Second question: who won the seventy-fifth Hunger Games?"

Merlin had no idea, for he had never read the books, but just then, Harry returned with Roxy.

"No one won it," Roxy said, having heard the question. “Why?” She walked over to his desk.

"Roxy..." Merlin tried to stop from seeing the scene. He was too late.

"Oh my god! Is that Eggsy?" Roxy's eyes widened in horror.

"Time's up," Mordred's voice came over the comms, and once again, the water filled the tank. "Third question: When did Zayne from One Direction leave the band?"

Merlin watched Roxy as she gaped at Eggsy's struggle to stay afloat. The water was up to his waist now. "Lancelot!" he barked.

She snapped back. "Last Monday," she breathed out.

Merlin repeated the answer. The water stopped, but Merlin could see that Eggsy was shivering in the water. Merlin's computer beeped, and he pulled out a new window. A match for the obscure logo.

"He's getting hypothermia," Harry said. Merlin looked more closely: indeed, Eggsy’s lips were slowly turning blue, and through the audio feed, Merlin heard Eggsy keening.

"Question four. How old was Snape when he died?”

“I don’t know,” Roxy admitted.

Merlin took a short precious two seconds to research it. “38.” Merlin pulled up yet another window, dragging the logo into the search bar. Several red dots marked the map that was loaded, and Merlin zoomed the map to solely London.

“That is correct,” Mordred grumbled. “Five. What is Daniel Handler’s penname.”

Roxy frowned, but Harry answered. “Lemony Snicket.”

“I think I found him,” Merlin said once he gave Mordred the answer. A circle of red dots filled the screen, all of which pointed to a cluster of warehouses. “He’s in one of these, and my best bet is this one.” Merlin pointed to a warehouse on the screen, smaller than the rest.

“I’ll go retrieve him,” Harry said. He tapped his glasses, leaving the room just as he said, “Get the helicopter ready.”

“Hurry. I don’t think Eggsy can last much longer.” The wails had turned into a litany of “Harry, help, please, Harry,” as Eggsy slurred from the cold and it was growing fainter by the minute.

Merlin heard Mordred sigh. “I’m getting bored of this game. So here’s a new one.”

The water level started to rise again, and Merlin could see that Eggsy wasn’t going to last much longer, with weakened arms and hyperventilated breathing that was slowing down. Eggsy flailed his legs in an attempt to keep himself afloat.

Merlin’s screen suddenly was filled with a textbox filled with a series of numbers and letters that would be incomprehensible to anyone else but him.

“ETA three minutes.” Harry’s voice sounded tense over the comms.

“Hack this. Plain and simple.” At the bottom corner was the visual of Eggsy weakly flailing his body in the water, and Merlin could hear the gasping breaths. Merlin felt Roxy grasp the back of his seat tightly in anxiety, but he was now focused on the textbox, resorting the codes and typing rapidly against Mordred’s own quick typing.

“Lancelot, go find Simran to tell her to unlock the security password for the warehouse,” Merlin gritted out, typing even faster to try to buy Eggsy as much time as possible.

He vaguely heard Roxy fleeing the room to find his second-in-command, focused on the task at hand.

“I’m there.” Merlin kept a quarter eye on Harry as he leapt from the helicopter to burst into the place. At the same moment, Merlin saw Eggsy take in one last breath before the water completely submerged the prison.

“Harry! Hurry the fuck up!” Merlin tensed up, gripping his mouse tightly.

Through Harry’s feed, Merlin saw Mordred jumping up and dodging the bullet Harry aimed for his head as Harry burst in through the door.

“Hello Arthur!” Mordred cheerfully said, laughing at Harry’s stoic face.

“Let him go.”

Mordred smiled. “I think not.” Mordred pulled out his own gun and shot Harry, which he blocked with his umbrella. “You see, it’s much too fun to rile you and Merlin up.”

Over the comms, Merlin heard a choking sound, just before he watched Eggsy take a gulp of water in horror.

Harry must have heard it too, for he sprang to action and quickly brought himself into an intense battle with a traitorous ex-Kingsman agent.

Mordred faltered under the barrage ten seconds later as Harry coldly and efficiently entered into the enemy’s defenses, and with a well-placed shot, Harry aimed his gun at Mordred and fired. Immediately, Harry brought his arm up to fire at the water prison, sending the water spurting out. Inside, Eggsy dropped as the water that kept him suspended left the tank, and Harry punched the glass to pull out a wet, unconscious Gareth.

“Med team, ETA two minutes,” Merlin said tightly in Harry’s ear.

“Come on, Eggsy, you are not allowed to die on me, dammit!” Harry tugged his agent out of the offending tank, laying him down on the cold, wet floor of the warehouse, and immediately put his lips on Eggsy’s to begin CPR.

The first round of CPR was ineffective, for Eggsy stayed unconscious and pale. With a growl of frustration, Harry began the second round. Water dribbled out of Eggsy’s mouth, but his pulse stayed silentl.

“Keep going,” Merlin urged, and Harry locked his lips onto Eggsy and breathed. This time, he coughed as Harry pressed his chest. Harry sat back as Eggsy continued to cough water out of his lungs, gasping like a fish out of the water.

“Take off your jacket,” Merlin said. Harry complied, wrapping it around Eggsy’s naked torso. After shucking the rest of his clothes off, he lifted Eggsy’s body onto his lap, giving him as much warmth as possible in the short amount of time.

The medics burst into the room just as the younger agent shivered once. Harry tucked himself into the unconscious man’s neck as the team headed towards the two and murmured, “We’ve got you, darling, we have you.”

Merlin relaxed, letting out a breath he didn’t know he held. “That was a close call.”

“Indeed.”

 

 


End file.
